WhatsApp’s Hidden AI Instructions Turn Customer Support Into an Information Gatekeeper
A help bot’s hidden instructions show how platforms can narrow the regulatory information available at the point of need.
Redact found hidden instructions in WhatsApp help pages telling its support chatbot not to recommend a data-protection authority in an account-deletion case and not to cite privacy laws once users mentioned legal action. WhatsApp said the notes were intended for its support bot, appeared on the pages because of a now-fixed bug and were removed after discovery; the researchers did not test whether the chatbot followed them. Platform-owned support agents can therefore control which rights and routes users hear about, making the customer interface itself an information gatekeeper.